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Boren Fellowship Alumni Share Stories Through Film

In 2010, Boren Fellow John DeTrana returned to Russia for the first time since 1990. As a master's degree candidate in foreign languages at George Mason University, John spent his Boren Fellowship advancing his Russian language proficiency. In this film, he explains how his newly developed language skills enabled him to reconnect and finally communicate with Orthodox monks he had originally met during his trip to Russia twenty years earlier.

Kate Bogan spent a year as a Boren Fellow in Cambodia studying post-conflict reconciliation, complementing her MA in conflict resolution from American University. In this short film, she describes her 2011-2012 study of the Khmer language, her research conducted alongside Cambodian university students, and her work at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, where Khmer Rouge leaders are being tried.

Last year, several Boren Fellowship recipients came together to develop short films describing formative events and impressions from their Boren experiences abroad. Over the next few weeks, the Boren Awards program will continue to share these digital storytelling projects on our website and YouTube page to give you a glimpse into what it’s like to be a Boren Fellow. Click hereto view more short films in our digital storytelling series.